Ethereum (ETH) Price Battles $1.2B Sell-Off, Analysts Question Rally

Ethereum (ETH) price still traded below $4,500 a few days after the surge that saw the altcoin almost hit $4,800. The rally followed a consolidation that lasted about ten days at the $4,200 zone.

However, the price of Ethereum immediately fell below the $4,500 mark after reaching these highs. The fact that the price did not surpass $4,800 during this rally from $4,200 is an indication that it could be weakening.

At the time of writing, the price was trading below this psychological level for the second consecutive day. Thus, analysts questioned the Ethereum rally.

Ethereum Seller-Volume Pushing Price Lower

The price action of Ethereum has dropped courtesy of the sell volume from all exchanges, with a total of $1.20 billion on a single day. In the last two days, the taker sell volume spiked, with the largest drop occurring on September 15th, when $2 billion was sold.

During these days, a majority of the sessions had an average sale volume of more than half a billion. This was an indication that the levels above the $4,600 zone possessed aggressive sellers who rejected the price each time.

Institutions also participated in what could be considered market manipulation, as Binance moved massive amounts of Ethereum.

Over the course of the previous day, millions of Ethereum were transferred for selling. Market makers like Wintermute, as well as other organizations like Jump Crypto and the Gate.io exchange, were at the center of these moves.

Additionally, the Ethereum ETFs saw outflows, adding to the sell pressure. About $61.7 million in ETH was withdrawn from ETFs, with Fidelity and BlackRock having the largest sums, respectively. With this sell pressure, especially from institutions, analysts see that the Ethereum price rally could be over.

Analysts Question Ethereum Price Rally

According to analyst Elja, the Ethereum rally was over for this cycle. Elja said that the repetition could be in four years, with his analysis pointing to a drop below $4,500. The current pattern formation was an indication of impending price reversal but needed a confirmation.

Currently, the price of ETH was trading below this level, but a push back above $4,500 could invalidate their prediction. With the FOMC meeting expected to fuel bullish market reactions, the Ethereum price could break out just like in the other two previous meetings.

Another analyst also predicted that Solana (SOL) was the better gamble in comparison to Ethereum. As per the analysis of Crypto Rand, Solana was solid against ETH. The SOL/ETH pair had broken above the descending trendline after the downward consolidation.

According to his forecast, SOL/ETH may keep rising in the upcoming months. The price action bottomed at 0.042, breaching the 0.048 resistance zone. The target was now set at 0.09 in the long run, a value last reached in May, just before the ETH became momentous.

Final Take On The Rally

Technically, these analysts’ views could be true if the FOMC meeting outcome became bearish for the cryptocurrencies. From the looks of it, the Federal Reserve was likely to cut rates.

Additionally, the fact that whales and institutions were now rotating capital from Ethereum to Bitcoin also suggested their take could be true. For instance, BlackRock sold Ethereum and bought more than $200 million in Bitcoin, as per Arkham data.

However, their perspective may seem unrealistic as we near the year’s final quarter, a typically bullish period for cryptocurrency. That said, Ethereum could reclaim the $4500 and continue rallying. Still, the altcoin was still above $4,200 and $3,600, two price levels that, if broken, would mean a complete shift of the current bullish sentiment.